EU states begin returning refugees to Greece

European Union member states like Germany, UK and others to send asylum seekers back to where they first sought refuge, despite the continued economic strife in Greece.

European countries are poised to begin the process of returning refugees to Greece, as migrants seeking reunification with their family members – mostly in Germany – step up protests in Athens.

In a move decried by human rights groups, EU states will send back asylum seekers who first sought refuge in Greece, despite the nation being enmeshed in its worst economic crisis in modern times.

Germany has made nearly 400 resettlement requests, according to officials in Berlin and sources in Athens’ leftist-led government. The UK, France, the Netherlands and Norway have also asked that asylum seekers be returned to Greece.

Greece’s migration minister told the Guardian the first returns were expected imminently.

“The paperwork has begun and we expect returns to begin over the next month,” said Yannis Mouzalas. “It will start with a symbolic number as an act of friendship [towards other EU nations]. Greece has already accepted so many [refugees], it has come under such pressure, that to accept more would be absurd, a joke if it weren’t such a tragedy.”

Mouzalas said he had no idea where the returnees would be placed or whether they would ever leave Greece. “I don’t know where they will go. It could be Athens, it could be Thebes … they are accommodated in an apartment scheme,” he said. “Whatever [happens], conditions will be good, they have improved greatly and will meet EU criteria.”

Officials say privately that acceptance of the transfers has been non-negotiable given Greece’s EU membership and receipt of funds from Brussels. Resettlement will not affect asylum seekers who arrived in the EU before March this year.

“It is incredible that a country like Germany, which now has so many camps standing empty because of the decreasing number of arrivals [since the Turkey-EU agreement], is demanding that people be sent back to Greece,” said Salinia Stroux, who heads the NGO Refugee Support Aegean. “It is not an argument to say they have too many or that they are not ready to accept any more when there are places that are there, ready and waiting, to host people whose rent has been already covered and paid for by the German state.” (full story The Guardian)

In the last couple of days, more than 1,100 news refugees and migrants arrived on the islands of the Eastern Aegean Sea. Local authorities watch with sudden increase of new arrivals with concern, wondering whether the phenomenon has to do with the improved weather conditions or with President Erdogan letting the EU – Turkey deal go burst due to his feud with Germany.

2 comments

Very bad indeed — for the refugees, for Greece, for the respect of humanitarian law. This is German politics all over again, with the CJEU also prioritising the Dublin rules over the lives and rights of people. The EU is behaving shamefully — much as it did with the eurozone crisis and its treatment of Greece.

When are the Greek people AND their incompetent, subservient government finally going to realize that the EU in Brussels is their biggest enemy and not Turkey, Macedonia, etc.? What more do the need to see, or experience?